Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Meeting "The Other Julie"

As I mentioned before, the conference in Las Vegas was full of Narcoleptics young and old, each with their own story to share. One woman who really struck me as a truly amazing person was Julie Flygare, a woman with Narcaplexy who has devoted her life to being an advocate for this disorder. She ran the Boston Marathon for the group Wake Up Narcolepsy in April 2010 which raised money for Narcolepsy research, worked with Harvard Medical School to create an informative Narcolepsy video to be shown to all of its students, and has a blog where she keeps her fans updated on her daily trials being an advocate for Narcolepsy and her work on her memoir.

I attended two of Julie's sessions at the conference; one about blogging and the other about advocacy. It was almost like hearing a motivational speaker, I imagine. She was so inspirational and made me want to tell go tell every person in the casino about Narcaplexy (now THAT would give Narcaplexy a weird reputation!). I still can't believe that I spoke with her, and then she asked to take a picture with me for her blog! That was a pretty great moment for me :)

And then to make things even crazier, my True Life episode, True Life: I Have Narcolepsy, aired on the 18th! They changed it on me at the last minute so I haven't even seen it yet :( I was flying home from Las Vegas when it premiered. So if you didn't get the memo and missed it, be sure to watch out for reruns or when it gets posted on MTV's website.

4 comments:

It was an honor to meet you too! Thank you so much for attending my conference sessions and writing such nice things about me on your blog.

You're an inspiration to me - lady. You've handled "narcaplexy" with such grace and strength. I look forward to seeing all the amazing things you do in the future. Also, I LOVE your blog and will follow it closely!

Sending smiles and wakefulness from DC,"The Other Julie" a.k.a. The REM Runner

So how does this work? Which one is Julie 1 and which one is Julie 2? I consdiered going with Julie F..... But that did not work out either... LOL . Either way, It was wonderful to meet you both this year, and I look forward to seeing all the things you do in the future to help advocate for the rest of us!

@manicramblings:Yes, that's a crazy coincidence of both being 'Julie Fs'! Well since Julie Flygare had narcolepsy FIRST, she gets to be Julie 1 and I'll take Julie 2 ;) LOL. Thank you, it was great to meet you too! I had an amazing time at the conference. And as a said above, I can't wait to have the opportunity to do something else to advocate :)

Hi Julie I started talking to you before your MTV show. The producers actually put us in touch. My name is Arielle and we both had similar experiences.. You as well as I started experiencing our symptoms after car accidents. I would love to continue talking to someone who has the same daily struggles as I do. Please please please email me at Arielle_Sterling@yahoo. I hope and look forward to talking to you.